eyes lit up, as if he was glad to see me. “What button? There’s a button?”
Did his tone sound a little too innocent? I flipped up a metal cover to reveal the button. I raised one eyebrow at him.
Billy gave an amused huff. “Oh. I just saw the handle and figured . . .”
“The handle’s a manual backup in case the button fails. Let’s see if it’s working.” I pressed the button. The heavy canvas pool cover, filthy and stained with green gunk, began to roll back. There was a momentary grind and shudder, then it moved back quietly and retreated into a panel at the end of the pool.
“Nice!” Billy said.
“Hmmm. The pool is less nice,” I pointed out. The water was a dull, mossy green. Not exactly inviting. “The good news is that we could rent this location out for a Southern Gothic.”
Billy laughed. “It is a bit swampy. Maybe a remake of Frogs.”
“Frogs?”
“From 1972, with Ray Milland and Sam Elliott.”
I shook my head.
He gasped. “You haven’t seen Frogs? It’s this campy movie set in a decaying old mansion in a swamp, where a bitchy rich family gathers. And the frogs attack and pick them off.”
It sounded dubious. “Are they poisonous frogs?”
“No! That’s what makes it so great!” He mimicked struggling with a small invisible creature at his throat, flopping on his back on the tile and grimacing as if he couldn’t breathe. Said small invisible creature apparently being . . . a frog.
“That’s ridiculous.” I had to press my lips tight to keep from smiling.
“Exactly!” Billy sat up. “Ray Milland acts the fuck out of that movie. D’ya like Ray Milland? He was crazy good in The Man with the X-Ray Eyes.”
“That’s a really old one, isn’t it? How do you know all these old movies? You’re not even twenty, are you?”
“I’m twenty-one,” Billy said with a touch of annoyance. “And, no, I wasn’t born in 1972, when Frogs came out, or in 1931, when Lugosi’s Dracula was released. But that’s what the library and Amazon Prime are for. What about you? Do you only watch recent movies? You’re only thirty—”
He stopped and his cheeks went red. His white teeth flashed as he chewed his bottom lip. “I mean . . . I don’t have the least idea how old you are. Maybe thirty?”
“Nice try. Please, don’t stop being inappropriate on my account.”
But then an uneasy feeling squirmed in my belly. Something in his tone didn’t ring true. He didn’t know I was thirty-one, right? He didn’t know anything about me.
Did he?
Billy, expression innocent, was studying the water now. “Yeah, we can totally bring this pool back. I’ll need to buy some stuff. A pool vacuum, test kit, and tons of chlorine. We’ll probably need some chemicals to raise or lower the pH too.”
I relaxed. The remark about my age had just been curiosity. Billy didn’t know who I was.
“Hmm. I’m not sure a YouTube video will fix this. Even Jack looks dubious.”
Jack was standing on the opposite side of the pool, looking at the water with a barely moving tail, as if he wanted to be excited about it, but he wasn’t sure it was warranted.
“Oh ye of little faith. Never doubt the power of the hive mind. Should I go into town and pick up the stuff at the hardware store? I can get started today. It might cost a couple of hundred for everything we need, though. If that’s okay.”
I hummed and looked over the pool. The money was nothing. But . . . why were we doing this? What was the point? Was it really for Jack’s sake? Did I just have a hard time saying no to Billy? Or was I stupidly longing for things that I would never . . . should never . . . have again?
I looked over the back of the manor and then up at the sky, which was a vivid blue today, the sun bright. There wasn’t a shadow in sight, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
I stood up and dusted off my gloves. “Get whatever you need, and have at it. I need to get back to work.”
I couldn’t miss the disappointment on Billy’s face as I called Jack and started back for the house.
Chapter 8
Billy
“Who the hell are you?”
I startled and jerked upright from where I’d been planting annuals around the side of the house. A man stood there. He had gunmetal gray hair, a pointed chin and nose, and piercing brown eyes.